AP Exclusive: Documents Say Candidate Near Insanity

[davidswanson]

By SPAMELA MESS, Antisocial Press

A U.S. military officer warned Pentagon officials that an American candidate for president was being driven nearly insane by months of punishing campaigning and deprivation of contact with non-supporters, according to documents obtained by The Antisocial Press.

While the treatment of candidates at duopolist facilities at General Electric studios and within the Public Broadcasting Corporation have long been the subject of human rights complaints and court scrutiny, the documents shed new light on how one American candidate has handled the stress of unrelenting dishonesty and the diversity of beliefs required when facing different audiences.

United States Senator John McCain, according to the documents obtained, has begun referring to Americans as "my fellow prisoners," and adopting the habit of denying prisoners names. McCain now refers to his opponent, Senator Barack Obama, as "that one."

The U.S. military officer, whose name has been redacted, warned that "placing someone in charge of what we used to call the free world who believes we are living in a prison has obvious implications for the continued erosion of liberties, but our primary concern should be the establishment of checks and safety precautions in the event that the power of nuclear first strike is placed in the hands of a lunatic."

A separate Pentagon study conducted subsequent to this warning concluded that there is a significant likelihood of McCain ordering a nuclear strike on Vietnam in his first month in office. McCain openly announced on his "Straight Talk Express" bus in 2000: "I hated the gooks and will continue to hate them as long as I live." His aggressiveness has increased in the subsequent eight years, according to the Pentagon report, "in direct proportion to his loss of grip on the reality around him."

In January 2008, Republican Senator Thad Cochran said "The thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine. He's erratic. He's hotheaded. He loses his temper and he worries me."

Cochran described a diplomatic mission to Nicaragua during which McCain suddenly reached across a table to grab a government official and lift him out of his chair:

"I don't know what he was telling him but I thought, good grief, everybody around here has got guns and we were there on a diplomatic mission. I don't know what had happened to provoke John but he obviously got mad at the guy and just reached over there and snatched him."

In April 2008, Republican Senator Bob Smith added:

"His temper would place this country at risk in international affairs, and the world perhaps in danger. In my mind it should disqualify him. … I've witnessed a lot of his temper and outbursts. For me, some of this stuff is relevant. It raises questions about stability. … It's more than just temper. It's this need of his to show you that he's above you -- a sneering, condescending attitude."

The Pentagon report concluded with the consensus opinion of a group of experts that McCain almost certainly believes himself to be campaigning for the position of warden of a prison in which we all live.

***

While the preceding is satire written by David Swanson for AfterDowningStreet.org, and there are no Pentagon reports, the three quotes from McCain and the three quotes from the two Republican Senators are perfectly real, as is the danger.

[soulcore]

1. too soon.

And too serious a subject to be laughing matter.

We are literally driving American citizens insane with our methods of torture.

[palintology]

2. McCain is in this race to get a State Funeral.

[pattmarty]

3. Stupid. Not fucking funny at all. What were you thinking???

[rucognizant]

4. Especially....

since Swanson usually write seriously! Maybe HE has been driven mad by all thise insanity?

[Overseas]

5. Freaky satire, with the actual quotes woven in there. //

[truedelphi]

6. While others at DU beat up on McCain - I feel troubled by what I see as health matters

Pls do NOT misunderstand. I am not a fan of Mc Cain's.

But a year ago, and even six months ago, when he appeared on Jon Stewart or Letterman, he was affable and pleasant and seemed in control of his faulties.

That man is gone, and in his place is someone quite different.

I do not see his "That one" comment as being racist. As someone who has taken care of seniors, I see it as the type of gaffe tht someone in the early stages of Alzheimer's or other dementia would make. (I do understand why other DU'ers see it that way. It looked like terrible behavior. But it is exactly how someone in the early stages of dementia acts - "That one" could refer to a beloved grandchild, or their wife or offspring. I have seen it all too often.)

He appears far too "Imperial" these days. And often, that "Imperialism" is a stance that a senior citizen cloaks themselves inside of when they are ffirst struggling with the onset of dementia (In later months, that "Imperialism" is gone, replaced by total befuddlement.)

My husband and I also noticed how he leers at Sarah Palin. Overly so.

So while the public probably sees that behavior as an indication of his being a dirty old man, that too is a sign that one is losing the self control we normally retain in our social encounters.

McCain is a Senator and a Businessman, and I cannot believe that over the years, he never learned to address black Americans with respect. Especially not if in a professional setting. Nor can I believe that Sarah Palin is the first pretty, younger woman to have come across his path. The above mentioned behavior patterns indicate to me that he is in the early stages of a major illness, one that would certainly compromise his ability to hold office.

[D-Lee]

7. Please change label to indicate satire

The information about which the article is built is chilling ... and the dementia comments are very well taken.

Nonetheless, would have liked to get my humor glasses on before I started reading ...

[BrotherBuzz]

8. Snot the Onion

They have standards.

[Butch350]

9. Do Presidential Candidates have to take psychological tests?

[Peace Patriot]

10. I was curious about the time-frame for McCain roughing up the Nicaraguan diplomat

--the incident Senator Cochran (R) revealed.

"I don't know what he was telling him but I thought, good grief, everybody around here has got guns and we were there on a diplomatic mission. I don't know what had happened to provoke John but he obviously got mad at the guy and just reached over there and snatched him." --Cochran

So I looked it up.

Sure enough, it was a Sandinista that McCain got into a rage at. And the time-frame was three years after the Sandinistas were elected to run the government of Nicaragua, with Daniel Ortega as president, in free and fair elections (according to everyone but the Reagan buttheads). The incident occurred in 1987.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25495610/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandinista

The background is that the Reagan regime had conducted an illegal war on Nicaragua, expressly forbidden by Congress, by selling arms to Iran (yup) for the money to buy rightwing mercenaries and death squads (the "Contras"), who crossed over the border from their staging areas in Honduras, to kill teachers and mayors in Nicaraguan villages who supported the Sandinistas. The CIA/"Contras" also used the cocaine trade to fund these murders. The Sandinistas had mounted an armed revolution against the hideously brutal Somoza junta in 1979, won it easily, with huge popular support, and soon became peaceful and arranged for elections. Reagan, God of the Republican Party, was determined to overthrow this obviously legitimate government of Nicaragua by illegal, Congressionally forbidden, sneaky armed force often against civilians. Congress investigated this outrage during Reagan's second term (late 1980s) (the "Iran-Contra" hearings). Some Reaganites were slapped on the wrist. Reagan got away scott free. (That was the end of the Democratic Party, as we knew it before Reagan--in my opinion.)

So now, imagine John McCain in a Congressional delegation having talks with Nicaraguan (Sandinista) diplomats, who had won the revolution and the elections, and whom the Republicans had sought to topple, in a dreadful campaign of assassinating mostly civilians. The Reaganites were TERRORISTS (in Nicaragua--also in Guatemala and El Salvador). It was a steam-filled room, I should imagine. Christopher Dodd was also there, no doubt trying to see what advantage could be gained for the corporations of the Bilderburg Group. (I suspect that that Group is where "TRADE SECRET" vote counting for U.S. elections originated. But I digress...).

Well, friends, the Sandinistas are BACK. Daniel Ortega was just recently re-elected as president of Nicaragua--in the midst of a peaceful, democratic, leftist revolution that has swept South American elections, and is swiftly moving into Central America.

If McCain would punch out a Sandinista then, when the Reagan thuggery had failed, what would he do NOW, when the Bushwhacks have failed on a colossal scale? The mind reels at what this man and his partner, Ms. To Nowhere, might do to our peaceful neighbors to the south, who are electing leftist government after leftist government, all over the map--and, not only that, whose leaders have gotten together on political/economic integration with social justice goals, and have formed UNASUR, the South American "Common Market" (sans the U.S.). War, surely. They'll bring Oil War II to this hemisphere. They are likely to be particularly brutal in the Central America/Caribbean region. I think the plan may be to create a leftist-free zone in that region--as a buffer against the potentially very powerful UNASUR--using the U.S. 4th Fleet, the Colombian military and rightwing paramilitary death squads, U.S. special forces, local fascist militias and assorted mercenaries. One of their goals may be to grab Zulia, Venezuela's main oil-producing state, which sits on the Caribbean, adjacent to Colombia (Bush Cartel client state), and where a recent plot against the Chavez government has been exposed. The idea would be for local fascists to declare their "independence," and ask for U.S. help.

A similar plot (maybe a test case) has been unfolding recently in Bolivia (Bushwhack support of white separatists, who recently rioted, machine-gunned some 30 unarmed peasants--supporters of the Morales government--blew up a gas pipeline and committed other mayhem, in an effort to split off their gas/oil-rich provinces from the national government. Morales is the first indigenous president of Bolivia, a largely indigenous country. The Bushwhacks rubbed salt--and millions of our tax dollars--into the racial wounds, and produced anarchy.) South American countries have strongly pulled together on the attempt to split up Bolivia, with UNASUR a key player in the cooperation and unanimity. But UNASUR doesn't yet have a defense force (proposed by Brazil), and Venezuela's oil state, Zulia--a much more strategically important prize--may look like a "sitting duck" to Bushwhack shooters.

At THE most critical moment of change in north/south relations in the entire modern history of this hemisphere, we need a very steady hand in charge of our government and foreign policy. Not someone who is inclined to punch out foreign diplomats when he loses--nor a hate-filled, clueless replacement, chosen for her lipstick. I don't think Obama's plan to flood the place with Peace Corps volunteers and hundreds of new consulates in "forgotten" places, and to continue with the Bushwhacko 'divide and conquer' tactics, maybe by less dirty means, is terrific either. But it sure beats invading Venezuela, losing (they will lose, believe me), and causing a permanent, unhealable rift between us and half the hemisphere.

[davidswanson]

11. excellent

point